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Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Overcoming

 


Some days are harder than others.
The heart grows tired of carrying its weight.
It needs a gentler song.

These are the last three things that happened:
I chopped veggies for a stir-fry.
Summer rain tapped on the skylight;
I watched the droplets sliding down.
You didn't call.

I love stories about overcoming:
light over darkness, rising
above circumstance.
These days,
midst all the far-right rhetoric,
all I want is a story about kindness:
helpers working to assist refugees,
cease fires - please! -
animals being rescued, sunflowers
sprouting in unexpected places,
their sunny faces
a symbol of never
giving up.

My heart has been faltering.
It needed a cup of tea
and six or seven sweet
and caring words.
And the other night,
I heard them, on TV:
Hope,
enough to put into a poem,
a green tendril taking root
in rocky but receptive ground
and thrusting
- joyfully! -
towards the sun.

I feel the energy
of a new day,
dawning,
as our leaves unfurl
and spread across
the land.

I can't help it. I'll never get over
needing hope in order
to live.
I'll never not need
the watering of our roots
with unity, fairness
and justice,
all of us
turning our heads
to the sun once more.
What a big deal it is -
to feel ready to
believe again.



I am impacted by the surge of energy in the USA, loud enough to drown the dark rhetoric of the far right. I dare to hope in this particular Overcoming: darkness into light, fear into the promise of a kinder, more just tomorrow. The contrast could not be clearer.


11 comments:

  1. Yes, Sherry, we all need all of the stories of overcoming that we can find. And, yes, hope is rising in the U.S.A. We have a few more months to keep that energy alive, to keep hope alive, to keep democracy alive.

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  2. "You didn't call" - how ominous that line is in the list of things that happened... hope is a premium commodity these days, Sherry... we try, as you say, to find little things to believe, desperately, but one look at the headlines can shatter even that. I love "watering of our roots" - wish the world would pause its nonsense and do just that.

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  3. ". . . all of us
    turning our heads
    to the sun once more."
    I felt it last week and this week, too. But it's true in the magnitude of events that "six or seven sweet
    and caring words" would have helped me as well. Beautiful, unexpected poem!

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  4. I am glad you can always find a sunflower (and a cup of tea) - Jae

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  5. We all need those watered roots....never give in. Kindness is in short supply. Kind words and caring is an elixir of life. Lovely poem...Rall

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  6. "all I want is a story about kindness:" This is such a little and simple wish of the mind yet so very difficult to find. How lovely to see the triumph of the green tendril and those 'caring words'. A beautiful poem, Sherry.

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  7. Once again, you’ve captured some of the thoughts I’ve had, and written them in a poem, Sherry! The opening lines made me sit up – yes, I know that feeling! Yes, we need stories about overcoming and kindness, and a cup of tea would be good too, with a poem.

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  8. Kindness and peace to you. 🌻

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  9. Hope is a sacred word and one that fills the darkness with light. Your poem speaks to me in my own life.

    I wonder about the call that never came? There is a sense of disappointment.

    Truedessa

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    Replies
    1. Yes, when I wrote the poem, I was worrying about someone and rather heartsick......

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  10. A wonderful poem, and you are so right, what would life be without hope? This morning at the lab, the tech told me, so many people complain, and that her company doesn't allow them to say Merry Christmas anymore. So when I left she wished me a Merry Christmas, and I wished her the samw. Funny I felt better for that little kindness. And now I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. annell

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